


the house don't fall when the bones are good

by fate-motif (fate_motif)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Canon Compliant, Consequences to Ignored Canon Events, Friends to Lovers to Friends to..., M/M, Mild Internalized Biphobia, Mild Internalized Homophobia, Multi, Season 2 Reinterpretation, as some lgbt kids are wont to have, making sense of s2 by myself and also zag is filled with COWARDS, mild internalized acephobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21713722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fate_motif/pseuds/fate-motif
Summary: Max and Kim's time together doesn't go remotely how either Kim or Max had planned.(Or: Season 2 revisited, through the eyes of the boys)
Relationships: Lê Chiến Kim/Ondine, Max Kanté/Lê Chiên Kim/Ondine, Max Kanté/Lê Chiến Kim
Comments: 18
Kudos: 33





	1. doudou antivillain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloé's party doesn't go the way Max expected it to go.

“It’ll be cool, give her a chance!”

Kim has chosen to lay down on the ground to be directly under Max’ s gaze as he sits on the park bench. Somehow, the puppy pout works really well on Max with Kim splayed out on the dirt like this. Some kid runs past the two with a hoverboard, determined to take full enjoyment in his afternoon out to play. Kim then partially sits up, and gives Max finger guns. Max cracks a smile to the doofus below him. After school afternoons, when it was just the two of them, could fix anything. Even schooldays ruined by Chloé Bourgeoise.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“Victory!” Kim fist pumps the air, but still doesn’t get up from where he is. “Partyyy!”

Max slides from the back of the bench and onto the actual seat so he’s now crouched up on the seat looking down. Kim locks eyes with him again with a twinkle in his eyes. Oh no, muses Max in mock protest to himself. He has an idea. Max looks away with his entire face crinkling into the silliest grin, unable to imagine what Kim's coming up with at the moment.

“We could slow dance.”

Oh.

Max’s face falls.

“You don’t want to?”

The disappointment kind of kills Max, but he only joins Kim on the dirt ground on the park in silence, but kept his eyes on the soft blue afternoon sky. He doesn’t ponder his answer for long.

“I mean, it’s not dancing I’m against, but no one in the class knows we’re steady.”

“Alix,” contradicts Kim.

“Okay, aside from her.”

“I don’t think anyone would mind.” Kim’s hand slides into Max’s.

Max closes his eyes. The sunset warmth, the dirt, the privacy in the public of a metropolis - he can’t imagine how being scrutinized by their classmates, or worse, their classmates’ parents, could be any more romantic than this.

They’d agreed - no more acting out their relationship for the world. They didn’t matter.

And yet, they kind of mattered.

“You’re not scared the mayor will see us? Or that Chloé will tell him?”

“Pfft, the whole school’s invited. There’ll probably be alcohol under the table. There’s really too much going on for either of them to care about two guys dancing in the ballroom.”

Max turns his head so he can look into Kim’s eyes. Blissfully optimistic. It was contagious, really. It takes a nanosecond for Max to melt.

“Only if you pick me up.”

Kim instantly shoots up with energy Max hadn’t even seen building up, and brings Max up with him by holding him up by his shoulders. Max laughs while he’s whipped into standing, and is silenced by Kim giving him a peck on the lips.

“You chose the right guy for the job, Kanté!”

Max buries his face in Kim’s chest. But among the sounds of the shrieking kids in the park, the rustling of the leaves, the honking of the cars not far from where they’d stopped for some alone time, there’s a mocking whisper somehow louder than all the racket.

_ This is 100%, guaranteed, a bad idea. _

Shut up, Max spits back in his head.

* * *

The second the hotel doors open, Max’s hesitation evaporates. The grandeur of the hotel never ceased to impress him, and now the lobbies, the food, the sound - Max blinked hard to take it all in. Kim drags him inside by the hand, but Max is already keeping pace with him just so they could get their hands on the chocolates offered in display just for them in silver platters. Max moans as the caramel center of this particular truffle dissolves on his tongue. 

“I thought this brand closed down ten years ago!” crowed Max, giggling.

“I feel like I’m eating gold,” confessed Kim. To his credit, there’s a bit of the gold wrapper at the edge of his lips.

“Mademoiselle spares no expense for her guests,” a grim voice shars behind them. When the two boys turned back in a jolt, a butler with an ashen face but a kind smile is nodding at them. Max really can’t blame him for looking that worn down. The stress of dealing with Chloé on a daily basis explains the silver threads on his head perfectly.

“Yeah, she can be like that at school, too,” admits Kim, almost wistfully.

Max glances up at Kim in surprise.

“Well, not today! And not for at least the entirety of the semester!” points out Max.

Kim grimaces. “Yeah, but…”

“If it makes your stay here more comfortable, sir,” interrupts the butler, giving Max a pat on the shoulder, “the mademoiselle’s gesture was on her part. She only needs a little nudge to be reminded of where up and down are, and wrong and right.”

From among the crowd, Max catches a glimpse of Chloé doing greetings with all the delicacy of collecting trash. He waves the butler forward to lean down so he could whisper in his ear.

“Is there a good way to avoid her all night?”

By his side, Kim cocks his head to the side, already looking at Chloé from among the crowd.

“I…” The butler hesitates, almost like he’s holding back any criticism of Chloé. “We would be most delighted to have her greet her guests - ”

“Yes, yes, but after that!”

The butler pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “Mademoiselle tends to avoid those video game contraptions, but we’ve set up a console for all kinds of games - ”

“What?” Max whips his head around in excitement. Only now is he hearing the sound effects of his favorite franchise among the crowd, the music, the echo. Mecha Strike! Like water in the desert! “Kim, they have games set up!”

Kim snaps to attention. “Right! Uh...can we duel later? We game all the time, man!”

The butler is now turning to other guests, but out of the corner of his eye, Max catches a nod in farewell. A _ good luck _ of sorts.

“... Yeah, sure.”

Max takes a deep breath.

“Come on, we should say hi to Chloé!” Before Max can even answer, Kim is already making his way through the crowd.

* * *

“Boom! Leave your baggage at the door, Kanté!”

Max gives out a frustrated groan when his third defeat comes crashing down with the victory screen. He would have shoved Alix to shut up if he weren’t already so eaten up by his insecurities. All Max can do is leaned his head over the control like it was a pillow he could bury it in.

Behind him, a shaky voice interrupted his self-pity. “If you're not going to do a rematch, can I take up the controller?”

Max whipped his head around to glare at the kid. 

'He's going through some things, Marc, read the hotel!' intervenes Alix.

Marc slowly walks away from the two players, gloved hands up in emotional self-defense.

The crowd that had initially gathered to watch the duo brawl is beginning to disperse. Maybe the music is getting good, or maybe the skinny, clingy kid at the controllers isn't bringing his A-game and refusing to let anyone near it.

“Actually...Marc?” Max looks around for the guy in the red hoodie, but he had already vanished in the crowd. He holds his controller out randomly to whoever might be willing to take it. It’s instantly snatched out of his hands by Jean Duparc of all people, and he’s shoved out of the way with an ecstatic “Thank you, Max!”

“Guess I owe you a rematch, dude,” calls out Alix, who's looking genuinely bad for him. “Later!”

In his momentary daze, Max is swarmed by onlookers from his school he had never even met, ready to cheer on for the fight. There's just nowhere in this entire hotel he can just chill out, and the last thing he wants to do is get mocked by Chloé for his awkward dance moves.

Almost in a trance, he stumbles to the bar for a drink. The music mellows out into a cheesier number, but it barely registers to Max as he just downs whatever fizzy drink is being served out by the waiters and closes his eyes.

“This party sucks, dude.”

Beside him, Nath has settled down for a drink as well and has his hands back on the counter as he looks out into the dancers’ crowd.

“I don’t consider myself an expert on parties and haven’t been at enough of them to judge,” confesses Max, as looks up at the redheaded boy, who, if bored, seems fairly relaxed. “But I’m not enjoying myself, either.”

“It’s just the introvert life, I guess,” agrees Nath. “The best thing for that is to get your own introvert circle to sit out the crazy.”

Max cocks his head in a  _ fair enough _ gesture.  _ But when you got dragged here by your extrovert boyfriend... _

Marc, the guy in the red hoodie, has joined Nath at the drinks and begun to speak to him. But Max’s lazy gaze over the dancers suddenly drops into sharp focus when Chloé's screeching peaks over the music. She's stomping over to Adrien and Marinette in absolute outrage, paying no mind to the partner she’s just rejected. And Kim, champion of Chloé rejection, only stares at the floor in disappointment.

The emotion running through his body doesn’t feel real. Like he’s been drinking lead for months and suddenly, all at once, it pulls at his gut all the way down to his feet, mouth sick with misery. Max blinks several times, trying to get his bearings through the feeling until he’s jolted out of his reverie by a jet-black butterfly flickering past his wrist and into the crowds. He recognizes in an instant and it makes everything about this night ten times worse. The hurt, the fear, the shame - he might as well have downed a whole rainbow of liquors for what it was doing to his stomach. He just really wants to get out now.

Until there’s laughter.

The waiter from earlier has approached Chloé and given her a stern little lecture through a teddy bear right there on the dance floor. It’s almost bizarre to watch the scene unfold until Kim of all people cackles behind Chloé, watching the scene unfold.

“Is that your teddy bear, Chloé?”

Ivan and a bunch of kids have joined in, probably as delighted as Kim over the sweet sweet karma that has just taken place. Max, however, is in no mood to laugh, and neither is Chloé. She drags the waiter by the arm to the side with her face puffing red and infuriated. Over by the drinks, Max is looking about frantically for the butterfly.

“Who do you think - Max?” Marc has drifted away from the conversation in search for the bathroom as Nath turns back to Max again to speak, only to notice him jerking his head around like an idiot. “Is everything okay?”

“I saw an akuma, I am 100% positive about it!” mumbles Max. Every little flash of purple is making his hair stand on end.

Nath puts a hand on his shoulder. “Then probably the best thing to do is calm down?”

“And Ladybug will fix everything and tell Kim that maybe dumping your boyfriend at a party he didn’t want to come to slow-dance with the girl that humiliated him online is the worst!” The words pour out of his mouth before he can help them, and he covers his mouth almost instinctively. Nath’s face pales. “I’m kidding!”

“No, I - I understand!” Nath glances over to see if anyone was listening, almost mirroring Max’s own fear. “I...I didn't see that coming, but...you don’t need to be afraid. It’s cool.”

There’s wordless understanding between awkward glances for a second, and Max takes a step back. Once the shock wears off, he wipes sweat off his brow he wasn’t even aware had gathered until he was wiping it off.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure...the butterfly showed up for me -”

“And even if it did,” said Nath, holding both of Max’s shoulders, “Hawkmoth called it up, and you didn’t, and that’s not your problem! Bad things happen around Chloé, you know? Don’t give either of them the satisfaction.”

Max pats Nath’s hands off his shoulders, as gently as he can. He’s still reeling and still hurt, but he can think through the betrayal long enough to give a shaky laugh.

“I didn’t know.”

“You’re kind of a shut-in, off-the-social-media-grid guy, Max,” says Nath, tilting his paper cup in explanation. It’s only until he’s about to speak next when the severity of Max’s confession hits him. “Wait, does that mean - ”

Chloé’s screeching is somehow echoing across the hotel like it’s a superpowered cry, as she’s been running across the room and darting back and forth away from Sabrina and Kim. Kim suddenly has her locked in his grasp in the rudest way, and before Chloé knows it, he’s spinning her into an unwanted dance. There’s something almost robotic in the way he’s moving that instantly gives away that something’s wrong. Max has a split second to turn around to Nath and Marc, who has just returned, and whispers to them urgently. “Akuma!”

The three dart behind the bar just as Ladybug into the scene from a window. They huddle together in fear as they hear struggle not far off. Chloé is yelling, Kim gives a shout of surprise, and Ladybug’s commands are joined by Chat Noir. Guests begin to scamper around in fear, running from a threat none of the three boys could see.

“Clear the room, don't just stand there!”

At least, Max has his eyes shut tight, hoping for the nightmare to blow away and for the afternoon park to reappear before him.

Out of nowhere, Max feels a needle stab into his leg, and his eyes snap open. He would have cried out if not for the almost instant fog that clouded his mind after the stab. Before he knows it, he’s standing up with a blank look on his face and scrambling for a chair. He’s under a spell and can’t scream as he’s climbing up on the bar with dexterity he didn’t know he’d had. The chair spins between his hands and his arm twirls to send it right to Ladybug's head. His head is nearly empty as he yells “What would you say to a game of flying chairs?”

He grabs another chair with the intention of sending it flying again, pulled on by the strings of an invisible puppeteer, before Ladybug springs her yo-yo to yank his leg and he’s spent sprawling back and sitting on the bar. With a thud, he lands back into reality and back into control of his senses.

“Max! Get down!”

Max scrambles off the counter but doesn’t have much time it’s Chat Noir who’s staring at Ladybug with dead eyes. None of the other guests dare move either as the two heroes fought, right up till Chloé, of all people, darts forward and pulls Chat Noir off Ladybug by the tail and onto a couch. The couch disintegrates before everyone's eyes.

The fight between the heroes isn’t done yet, though. Chat Noir is back on Ladybug’s trail with a growl, and Chloé has run behind them up to the roof. Everyone else is left cowering, anxious, waiting for the attack to end.

* * *

When Chloé stomps down back into the ballroom, there’s a collective sigh of relief and people begin to unfreeze from where they’d hidden. Max takes shaky steps up and turns around to get a drink. Before he’s done with his cup he can feel walk up behind him - close enough he could feel Kim’s warmth, but not quite touching him.

“Hey, Max - ” begins Kim, clearing his throat. Max turns his head at him in disbelief, and notices that it’s not only him who’s noticed Kim’s messing around. Nino and Alya, previously hugging out the terror, are staring at them in confusion, then concern. Just as well, Nathanael and Marc have walked up beside him in the world’s strangest hype backup for someone they didn’t really know that well.

Kim begins to pant mid-sentence, clearly aware that he has an audience.

“I don’t want to talk right now,” says Max, head and voice low. In the strangest and most sickening way, he’s found both the support he’s desperately wanted and the attention he was terrified he’d get.

Kim’s shaking his head. “You were busy playing, I was just messing around waiting for you to be done!” Max can almost believe him, if Kim wasn’t looking like a kicked puppy. Normally, when Kim doesn’t feel he has anything to apologize for, he doesn’t move a finger.

Now, he’s begging.

“That’s cool.” The words leave his mouth colder than he’d intended them to be. “Can we talk tomorrow?”

The rejection crashes down on Kim one second at the time. The eyes that had quietly taken in the scene are drifting back to where they’d previously been before the argument, and with this, Max feels free to walk away towards the elevator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *crackles knuckles* time for me to unpack zag's bullshit
> 
> OKAY. i kinda promised this one a looong time ago but it's basically a sequel series fic to the "zoo date origins", and it's going to be mostly canon compliant, but also heavily biased towards my reinterpretation of things because of course it is, this is a kimax fic and i live the kimax life. stay tuned for updates, love y'all.


	2. zombie sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miss Bustier's birthday doesn't go the way Kim expected it to go.

When everyone’s rolling up the mats they’ve set up for the meditation session, Miss Bustier places a gentle hand on Kim’s shoulder. Kim jerks to her touch, still half awake and groggy from the exercises, but then gives a nervous laugh.

“Kim,” she starts quietly, “I’ve noticed that you’ve been falling asleep a lot in class. Is there anything you’d like to discuss, any help you might need to get through the class, or to sleep at night?”

Kim rubs his eyes and then stands up to face Miss Bustier personally. It’s a little hard not to crack a smile when she’s shorter than him but still parenting him, as she does the rest of the class.

“I mean...I guess I’ll lay off the videogames for a bit until break?” he offers her.

Miss Bustier nods at him. “You know what to do best, but if you need to go to the nurse to discuss anything like herbal teas or anything to calm down before sleep - it’s not good to go around half-asleep, least of all for an athlete like you!”

Kim’s heart starts melting to liquid caramel when she says this, and blushes. “Thank you, Miss Bustier.” He’s about to turn away when he holds himself down. Everyone else is walking back to the barracks in the gym where they’d retrieved the mats and heading to the staircase for their next period, and he does need to get something off his chest. “Actually...can we talk?”

Miss Bustier frowns. “Of course, Kim. Anything you need.”

The two find one of the benches in the gym to sit down, and Kim gives a tremendous yawn when he lays back against the wall. Miss Bustier giggles.

“Sorry.”

“What do you need, Kim?”

Kim then sits up and turns to his teacher, his face wrinkled with worry.

“Okay, I’ve been playing a lot of videogames mostly because when I try to go to sleep, I think a little too hard about the things I’ve done and feel bad about them,” admits Kim. As Miss Bustier had put it in her mindfulness lessons, he’d allowed his anxieties to run free. He could try, though, and it would still always get the better of him.

“I’m sorry if my mindfulness lessons haven’t been helping you with that,” says Miss Bustier, once again placing a hand on his shoulder and leaning in kindly. “What do you feel bad about?”

Now for the gut punch.

“I...I messed up a relationship,” he sighs. “I danced with another girl at a party and - I know, it was stupid, I shouldn’t have done it, I didn’t want to hurt anyone - ”

“There, there. Breathe.”

Kim takes a theatrical breath, an “about to dive in for a good run” breath.

“Okay. Did she push you away? Is that why you’re having trouble with what you did?”

Kim’s head races through the last month, from Marinette’s birthday party to the weird Damocles cosplay moment to Markov’s failed conquest of humankind, and balks when he comes to the conclusion that Max had definitely, definitely pushed him away. Not entirely, because they still sat together in class and talked, and still played videogames with the boys and messed at the park with Alix. But they hadn’t really gone on anything just for the two of them for the longest time, and Kim was too afraid to ask. Worse, the few times they’d kissed since then, Max had been evasive and shy about it. At this point he almost didn’t mind that he was falling asleep in class because that was less time being by Max knowing he’d let him down. He’d messed up. The consequences were always hanging over his head.

“Well...yeah.” He rubs his face, trying to wake himself up further. “And like, we still hang out but apologizing didn’t fix that much. But I care! I really do! It didn’t mean anything, and I don’t know how to express that!”

Miss Bustier looks away for a second, pondering her next words.

“Well, I think you could talk to her seriously, but pair that talk with something nice so she knows that she’s special,” she suggests.

Kim crosses his arms and puts a hand to his chin, running through the money he’d made recently volunteering to clean the pool plus allowance plus -

“Kim?”

His eyes have been fluttering to a close mid-thought!

“Sorry!” Kim blinks hard, centering himself back into the conversation. When reality all but crashed around him like this, he would remember things that he didn’t before the snap - like the fact that Mendeleiev would have his hide if he spent too long with Miss Bustier. “I - I think that’s a great idea! Thank you, Miss Bustier!” He quickly gives her a hug and then sprints towards the staircase for his next lesson. Before he closes the door, he sees Miss Bustier give him a wave as she covers a smile behind a hand. His heart swells, and he promises to himself that Max is going to get the best present he can think of next week, and Miss Bustier would too.

* * *

The morning of Miss Bustier’s birthday Kim is early enough to school so he could buy both gifts before making it to the building. The halls hum with the steps and chatter of the everyday when he arrives, abuzz now with a little extra energy. Kim’s heart gallops a little and takes a deep breath in anticipation before dashing up the stairs clutching his schoolbag. He’s riding the excitement all the way to the lockers among his classmates. He even has to dodge through them and through snippets of conversations that inevitably made his way to his ears. All Kim needed to do was wait until the school day was over, and boom!

Except -  _ except  _ \- for the akuma attack.

“I can’t believe Marinette is getting punishment for what  _ she _ did!” growls Alix to the boys behind her, nodding curtly in Chloé’s direction. “I don’t think she's ever done anything nice in her life for someone else!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Kim can see Max crossing his arms and looking aside with a dirty glint in his eye. The unconscious little gesture stabs Kim right in the heart. Getting humiliated and rejected by Chloé was basically a bee sting compared to this. And that memory - Kim’s hand shoots to grasp Max’s, out of instinct, like an akuma attack is on the horizon. The sudden change in Kim's demeanour has Max startle in his grasp, and their eyes meet in a moment of panic. In Max’s steady gaze, Kim can count down from ten and breathe in with his nose, out through his mouth. Max breaks away from him, however, when both pick up the sounds of Miss Bustier’s desperate cries outside the class.

“Everyone stay where they are!” commands Alya. She’d be brave enough for all of them if it weren’t for the fact this was  _ Miss Bustier _ in distress. Had a villain got her? Had a  _ butterfly? _

In prompt answer to Kim’s question, the door opens to reveal a Miss Bustier in a doll-like costume in black and pink like a cursed toy from a bad manga. She skips up to her desk with a flourish, announcing to the class “From now on, everyone is going to hug! And kiss! And feel the love!”

Almost in unison, Kim, Max and Alix recoil.

“Even  _ you _ , Chloé!”

Ladybug bursts in quickly enough to save the class from being blown away by any kisses from Miss Bustier - except for Sabrina, who at the staircase begins to recoil and shudder until she can no longer stop herself from embracing Chloé and trying to give her a kiss.

“Now you know how life is for me, Chloé,” Kim hears Alix mutter.

It's no laughing matter when Mylène, and later Ivan, get caught in the kisses and -

_ Karma is real. Karma is definitely real. _

* * *

Ladybug rescues what remains of the class from the locker room and leads them to the roof. Of all of the constant nightmares that Kim's Paris had to go through,  _ this _ was getting on his nerves the most.

“Today of all days, Chloé Bourgeois has to ruin everything!” Kim yells at the sky, like the universe could somehow answer his complaints from the clouds.

“I’m right  _ here _ , Kim,” Chloé spits from behind him. Kim isn't listening.

“It’ll be fine, Kim, Ladybug can handle it,” offers Max, nudging him with his shoulder, but Kim is almost disgusted at himself from Max's calm reaction.

“I mean, she can, but it doesn't mean Miss Bustier won't make all of Paris suffer because Chloé is incapable of love!” Here he shoots back a furious glare at Chloé, a gesture so irrelevant to her she’s lost interest in the two of them not a second after. A knot ties itself in his throat in frustration because he screwed up  _ everything _ for -

“Makes two of you,” mutters Max.

Kim looks back at him in shock. The accusation hangs in the air ripe for the taking, but that second is interrupted by Alix of all people, who’s turned Max away and gestured to Ladybug. They can hear Zombizou’s threat from Ladybug's yo-yo phone.

“Very soon, the city will be hot on your heels!”

As soon as the address closes, Alix is at Chloé’s face pointing at her in anger. “It's always about you, isn’t it?” Chloé totters back with timid steps, dangerously close to the edge of the roof.

“We should give them what they want,” grumbles Alya.

And Kim would have been happy to help for that, but Ladybug -

“We need her as bait for Zombizou when the time is right!”

“When is that?”

“Now!” Rose is shrill when she points to the shingles of the school roof, where a tremendous mountain of love-crazed zombie freaks was beginning to take hold to the rafters that would inevitably lead them to the class.

“Time to evacuate!”

Chat Noir sets up his baton from the roof to a nearby abandoned bus in seconds that felt like years to all of them, and there's no time for stupid drama or -

“Max and Kim, you first.”

Kim instantly scoffs at that. Max crosses his arms and rolls his eyes. As long as Chloé smirks, they stay staring her down because she, of all people, wanting to put themselves in danger for  _ her _ -

“Hurry up!”

It's Kim’s turn at the baton when the zombies break into the roof. Kim barely has time to turn his head when he sees Max spring from his side and stretch his arms to defend Chloé from the horde. He is instantly surrounded by a girl from their art class and kissed on the neck, and he falls to the ground writhing and crying out.

“Max!”

He’s gone now. Kim has to fight incoming tears to dash to Chloé and hold her up so she can be the next on the rail down to the bus, even if it means giving in to Zombizou’s kissing plague. It was a fever dream come true to scoop her up and bridal carry the prettiest girl from his class away to safety, but inside Kim is only angry; so angry he thinks he’ll probably burn out the love plague with it.

“You’re not getting any kisses out of  _ me, _ ” retorts Chloé, unable to hurt Kim even as she’s being saved by him against anyone’s better judgment. 

“Just go before I change my mind!” he yells at her, as she slides away to the bus and to safety. That’s when he turns back and sees a sickening version of Max grasping out to him in desperation like Kim was his lifeline, followed by dozens of other kids looking exactly the same as him. He can’t stop Max from getting into his arms, but he  _ can _ separate all the other kids from him like Max wasn’t as far gone as them. Holding him close and having his lips kiss his cheek feels like the ultimate irony.

Ladybug pulls him away with her yo-yo, but it's too late for Kim too. Inside him, a giddy bubbling begins to rise beneath his skin and twist his lips into a smile. Ladybug's face - which was somehow even more beautiful now more than ever - is a decent last thing to look at before the kiss takes him away.

“Take care of Chloé,” he sighs to her. “I know you'll save all of us, like you always do…”

Ladybug nods.

“I promise.”

* * *

The rest of the day before the inevitably dezombifying is a haze in Kim’s mind. But through the fever spell the whole city was under, he can piece together some things for later in the day.

The first one was how Max climbed over to Kim after Ladybug had separated and gave him a massive hug with tears spilling from his eyes. Kim can’t help sobbing as well as they embrace, because suddenly all the barriers they had were  _ gone _ and they were together and now they could  _ kiss _ . Max’s face is burning when Kim cups it between his hands, and his mouth is on fire. He’s so ardent that his glasses slant over messily with how much he wanted Kim to kiss him. Both of the boys are gross and teary-eyed when their kiss ends, but in spite of this, Kim laughs.

“I’m sorry!” he cries out to Max, like he hadn’t said so before.

Max wipes off his own tears from his face and shakes his head. “No, I’m sorry!” Max’s voice breaks. “I was so afraid - that you didn’t want me anymore - that I let myself stay so angry! It was stupid!”

Kim holds him in his arms then, and hiccups.

“I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t  _ ever _ ,” he promises, both to him and to himself.

The daze is like the entire world has been coated by multicolored carmel and the longer Kim looks at the world, the more sweetness he can drink in with his eyes. At some point he gives Max a short-lived ride on his shoulders, and falls over giggling hysterically with his boyfriend in his arms. They even dance at some point, he thinks, to no music surrounded by so many other kids they would have been petrified to have been out with on an ordinary day. They’re free.

The second thing he can remember for posterity is grabbing Max’s hand and leading him to the lockers in sheer glee knowing he had a surprise waiting for him. The moment is everything Kim had dreamed of and more as Max’s face flushes and he hides his smile with two hands but it spills over to his eyes with joy. The present, a phone case modelled after Markov, is instantly accepted with a delirious hug and yet another kiss.

“You had this made for me?” Max gasps, taking in every inch of his new blue phone-cover and tracing a hand over the back. “When it’s Miss Bustier’s birthday?”

“I got her a flower vase instead of the perfume my mother wanted me to get her,” admits Kim, hands in his pockets. “So I could get this for you.”

Then they’re back again at kissing, and neither of them was tired of it yet. In this dream, Kim wishes he could stay like this forever.

The third thing is how they eventually run back to the roof of the school to look at the sky together, head to head on the floor of the roof with their eyes examining every cloud for the fun of it. They hold a pair of hands as they surmise the blue inmensity with their free hand. After countless clouds, Kim sighs in contentment and nuzzles Max’s face to give him a kiss on his forehead, to the side.

“You know, we should go on a date. Like an actual date and not just messing around with friends.”

“We’re going to be so busy for the next few months, Kim,” says Max, dreamily, practical even in this state.

“Okay, then how about we take that class trip to the movies and make that a date?” Max looks up with him, his approval already shining in his eyes. “No one will be looking. We can still be together.”

“That’d be perfect.” Max squeezes Kim’s hand even tighter.

Ten minutes later, Ladybug saves all of Paris, but Kim and Max were still holding hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shows up like eight years late with a second chapter
> 
> i swear i'll get this finished throughout the quarantine, because i've had a lot of time to write. anyway, here's an episode that zag just could have improved if they'd made it a little gayer!


	3. sailor's love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The class trip to see _Mecha Monkey vs. Cyber Shark 3_ doesn't go remotely as Max expected it to go.

A week after the Zombizou plague, Max still grins like crazy when he thinks about the rooftop events. He’s unable to wipe it off his face when he’s digging through his clothes to find an old cologne he’d bought for himself for one time at a mech competition he had signed up for last year. The pile of clothes is halfway at his knees when he finally finds it and sprays a bit on his wrist for a sniff. 

“Do you think I’m overreacting, Markov?” wondered Max aloud.

From the other side of his room, by his desk, Markov is charging in his own little pod made for him for that purpose, but his viewscreen gives him a blink of acknowledgment. Max hadn’t even expected an answer, and yet he was interrupted by his buddy just then.

“I think you should talk to Kim after the movie,” says Markov. He’s simple, though not unkind, in his tone. Max’s head turns back to the bot for a startled look, before he goes back to folding his clothes back again after his find. He sneezes; the dirt in the carpet was making his allergies act up.

“I think you’re right, but the date comes first,” counters Max. Markov doesn’t let him get past a few shirts when he answers.

“Correct, but once it’s done you should speak about how you would like your relationship to be.” Markov’s viewscreen is now giving him narrowed, concerned eyes. “In relationships where the boundaries have been set beforehand both the actual relationship and any potential breakups are 67% cleaner and with less consequences regretted by the parties involved, according to - ”

“I don’t think any source is helpful in this case, Markov. Relationships are all different and highly subjective even within one couple.” When he’s done he takes a seat at his desk, places the cologne beside Markov, and folds his arms before laying his head down and sighing.

“I do not have enough personally collected data to make a conclusion that could be helpful to you, Max,” protests Markov. His viewscreen flickers and changes to the Battery Full symbol. Soon he flits over to Max and places his little robot arm on Max’s shoulder. “I am your friend, and I wish to prevent any hurt that Kim or any interaction with Kim might cause you.”

Max sighs. “I don’t...want him to think I’m jealous of every girl he sees, Markov.” He traces a finger from the wooden desk to the window, where he can barely see the skyline of the city over the floor of the apartment next to his. It’s a beautiful day, but the sun is making him nervous somehow. “He likes girls and boys, which means he is bisexual, but being with a boy is harder than being with a girl because of how everything is and Kim  _ never _ thinks ahead about these kinds of things, and I can tell - !”

Markov bumps his processing unit against Max’s temple in affection.

“It is important he knows. Maybe he has similar fears and then your relationship can be perfectly balanced!”

Max gives a weary smile to Markov, and strokes his processing unit.

“Thank you, Markov. I will do my best when the movie is over.” Max then flicks his wrist to look at the time. “As of right now, I have half an hour to take a shower and then run over to the cinema.” He heads over to the little side bathroom adjacent to the desk, without taking the little cologne bottle with him.

* * *

“You can just wait for Kim inside.”

“No, I want to meet him here.”

Max crosses his arms and looks at Markov from the corner of his eye. “He’s late, and I would like him to know that. Though I wouldn’t be surprised the zoo incident prevented him from leaving the gym on time.”

The afternoon was getting hotter and hotter, and by the time Max sees Kim’s figure in the horizon, still half-wet and in a bathing cap, he has to wipe away the sweat from his forehead. At least he didn’t look half as wet as Kim himself.

“You are three minutes and thirty-seven seconds late. Everyone’s already insided,” chided Max.

“Is Chloé here?” Kim blurts it out, unable to get right to his previous mishap. This time, however, Max chuckles.

“Chloé would never come to  _ Mecha Monkey vs. Cyber Shark 3 _ . You’re still wearing your cap.”

“Oh!” Kim drags it off his head, and his funky little quiff poofs up in spite of the water. He’s a little glum, but he perks right back up when he sees Max smiling at him.

Just then another figure runs down the cobblestones of the street at full speed, panting by the time she’s at the doors of the cinema. Max rolls his eyes in amusement when he procures two tickets for the incoming late attendee: Alya, and the ticket for Marinette, of course. Someone always had to mind a spot for Marinette in advance. Max even made sure to have Markov remember him every time they had a group outing.

“Marinette not here yet?” drawls Alya, picking up with tickets.

“As usual! We’ll wait inside for you, yeah?” Kim’s already pushing his way through the doors, so Max dashes over to his side with Markov over his shoulder so they enter the theater together. Kim’s buying popcorn for both of them when Max catches up.

“You want to go out for coffee after this?” offered Max, prodding him with a shoulder. Kim laughs.

“I’m not sure I’m going to eat anything after buying this monstrosity,” he says when he receives his caramel-and-cheese extra large order. “but I could totally go for some real alone time after the movie!”

“Superb!” Max grins. By his side, Markov’s eyes on the viewscreen widen.

“Come on, we’re going to miss the previews, and I love the previews!” Even with Kim’s massive combo, Max’s medium salt order, and their drinks, Kim is rushing to the right room - though not without pausing every now and then to enter the room with Max. Markov takes the lead illuminating the staircase down to their seats, and Max carefully leads Kim down. There’s a flicker of light somewhere down under the screen where his eyesight can’t reach, but Max shakes his head and the glint is gone. They head to their seats and when the previews begin to roll in, they hold hands once again.

* * *

They lasted an entire 12 minutes and 45 seconds before the cinema began to flood. The class instantly abandoned their seats and fled to the roof of the multiplex, but the second he realized people were running from an akuma attack, part of Max just wanted to stay there in the water and drown. Not like Ladybug and Chat Noir wouldn’t be able to reverse it. He just wasn’t in the mood to get caught in the crossfire of yet another terrorist attack.

“I can detect that the salinity of this water is roughly equivalent to that of human tears!” exclaimed Markov, who dashed to the edge of the roof to dip his little claw in the water to test.

“Markov, get away from there!” No sooner than when Max spoke up, the water level on the roof increased considerably, and Markov barely flew over to Max’s shoulder in time to avoid being swallowed into the newest lake in the heart of France.

“My circuits are sensitive to water…” lamented Markov to Max. Max made a mental note to update him for later, in case Markov wanted to detect salinity and pH in liquids without risking his life.

Kim didn’t seem to have that problem himself.

The doofus immediately went into a sprint and dive into the water with his cap already on like he was born to be in the water. He had no trouble at all staying afloat and treading water in wait for anyone else to join him. Well, not anyone - Max.

_ How many times am I going to have to remind my idiot that I can’t swim. _

“Come on, guys! I can teach you to swim in two seconds, Markov.”

Max and Markov exchanged nonplussed looks.

“You just put your arms like this, then you push your legs, and it's kind of like being a frog…”

As Kim swam around in ignorant bliss, Max caught something out of the corner of his field of vision from the water. A dark pink fin was tracing a path in the flood water, swimming straight to the roof and in direct collision course to Kim. Max was no zoology aficionado, but he could make an educated guess that this was no ordinary fish that would be found in the Seine in natural circumstances.

Max barely has time to open his mouth when the interloper bursts from the water to the audience’s shock. The girl - because she was clearly a girl - seemed to be a mermaid with pink skin, fins, horns, and a long fish tail trailing behind her as she dove back down to catch Kim into her arms and drag him down with her into the depths.

“KIM!”

Recoiling, horror began to eat at Max like ice from his toes working its way up to his heart, in spite of the blazing sun above him. For a moment he forgets that Ladybug and Chat Noir would save Paris, as they always did, and instead he’s paralyzed by guilt when he considers that Kim could still be safe and  _ alive _ if Max had simply put his foot down and insisted he come back to the ceiling -

After a few minutes, Max sits down and runs his fingers over his face to breathe, and focus in the way Miss Bustier had all taught them to.  _ Any number of things to make the situation better or worse may have happened but what happened did and I can’t focus forever on it. _ He almost wished she were here.

“He’ll be fine, bro, give the superheroes some time to rescue him.” Alix sits down opposite to Max so their backs are laid against each other, just as they’d done since they were little kids.

“He had that one coming, didn’t he?” chuckled Max nervously, as if he weren’t already punching himself emotionally for not being there for Kim’s safety.

“He totally did. Don’t worry, all of this is going to be fixed and he’ll probably come out of this scarred for life and ready to abandon swimming.”

“Do you really think that?”

“No. I was being sarcastic.”

Markov settles down into Max’s hands so they’re looking at each other face to face.

“Living in Paris is hard but with Ladybug and Chat Noir counting on us counting on each other - ”

“We can make it,” sighed Max. His eyes trail to the horizon of the Tear Sea into the sunset, allowing the light to pool in his eyes into colorful spots, until it’s too much and he closes his eyes.

“You’d think having years of these would make you immune to the fear,” admitted Alix, in a rare moment of defeat. “I was scared too when Kim got dragged down, and I’ll probably scared every time Hawkmoth pulls off one of these. So. Don’t feel too bad.”

Max smiles.

“Thanks, Alix.”

* * *

When the attack is finally over and the water level returns to normal, Max remains at the duplex despite the screening of  _ Mecha Monkey vs. Cyber Shark 3 _ having been cancelled - with promised refunds, of course. He’s there long enough that even Markov gets bored of waiting for him, and settles himself in his little pod form to hibernate until the two of them could go back home. An hour and fifteen minutes after the flood is down, Max finally spots a figure crossing the street to the cinema - two figures, in fact, but only one was waving at the cinema and cringing in disappointment when he realized it was closed. The other one is a redheaded girl in a dark green coat and keeping her head down like she’d done something wrong - or come out of an akuma attack.

“It’s a shame they closed it down but I would have totally snuck you in to meet my class!” explains Kim to the girl, oblivious to Max in a bench not far from the cinema doors. “They’re super nice and they would have loved to meet you and totally wouldn’t have judged you for today!”

“They sound great,” agreed the girl, who was barely looking up from the neck of her coat. Her short hair was messy and damp like she’d dried it in a hurry before making it to the cinema. The girl then cleared her throat nervously before stuffing her hands in her coat pockets and approaching Kim with tentative steps. “Thank you for staying with me at the pool, Kim. Not everyone would have done that after...well…”

“Hawkmoth takes advantage of people being  _ people _ and not robots and that’s not your fault!” Kim grabs her shoulders. “It’s okay! Don’t feel bad. Please. We have so many more classes for this year and it would suck if it was awkward then or at competitions. I like talking to you.”

Just then the couple passes Max’s bench. Kim continued to be oblivious as he spoke to the girl, but in a passing glance his head turned back and caught a glance at the face of his best friend as he stood up and walked away quietly with tear-filled eyes.

If Syren’s tears could drown all of Paris, Max thinks, his would flood the planet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello naughty children it's syren time
> 
> for real i'm just straight up disappointed they decided to ditch these two in favor of inventing marc for nath. i have no clue...why'd they do that...


	4. straightlace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The apology doesn't go remotely as Kim expected it to.

“So basically, you’re mad at each other because of a misunderstanding.”

Ondine’s observation freezes Kim’s brain in a way not even the ice cream did. With these words, their little riverside meetup gets real enough that Kim’s no longer trying to wow her out. You can’t be the perfect potential boyfriend if you’ve got hangups with your exes.

“Could you hold on to the cone for me for a sec?” says Kim. Ondine takes his cone without a thought. She’s unprepared for Kim’s sighing with his entire body. He even hangs his head so low, anyone would think he was trying to dip into the river.

“Whoa, hold on there.”

“I mean, yes, but no!” Kim sits up straight again but drops his arms by his side in defeat. “If I hadn’t danced with Chloé at the party I know he would listen to me, but I did dance with Chloé at the party, and I _was_ kind of enjoying it like that, and it’s _my fault_ , okay? I would never do that again on purpose but he’s just not willing to talk, and I can’t make him listen to me no matter how much I want to explain myself.”

Ondine can only pat his back gingerly with the inside of her wrist, trying her best not to get the melting ice cream on the back of his shirt.

“Oh, can I have that back now?”

Kim takes back his cone with a swoop of his hand.

Ondine’s holding back a grin, but even Kim can tell that she’s still troubled.

“Ondine...I’m sorry. If you don’t want to date me, knowing that I messed up like that, I understand.” He can’t even look her in the eye as he speaks. He just looks at his sad, melting double cone of chocolate chip and mint with a cherry on the side, and briefly considers dropping it in the Seine. That’s how much he regrets everything that happened with Max.

Fortunately for him, Ondine shakes her head. “I mean, I’ve gotten all hurt before because _I_ wanted to understand a situation one way when I could have just given the other person a shot to explain themselves, so. I get it. I don’t think you should never have a girlfriend or a boyfriend - ”

“Or a datemate!”

“Or a datemate again,” grants Ondine, tilting her cone a little too dangerously mid-thought. “It’s just life.”

Kim sighs again. The sun is setting in the west, like Kim’s mostly sure it does, and the orange-red glow in the sky only lights up Ondine’s pretty hair even more than usual. _I don’t want to hurt her_ , is the first thought that runs through his head.

_I didn’t want to hurt Max, either._

“Thank you. For understanding.” He’s saying those words and feeling a knot in his throat at the same time. Like he’s a baby all ready to cry.

Ondine doesn’t pick fun at him, though. Instead, she continues eating her ice cream silently like they hadn’t just gotten scary deep. Not in a haughty way, either. Just taking it in. Her obliviousness coaxes a smile out of Kim.

“I think you should talk to him, Kim.”

There’s a proverbial record-scratch in the background noise in Kim’s mind.

“Uh...that’s going to be hard. Like, really hard.”

“You said you two sit together in class?”

Kim guffaws. He’s almost done with the first ball of his ice cream, but the second one is a mush seeping through the gooey mess of an ice cream cone that he’s holding. He’s pretty sure he won’t even be able to bite into it without taking the soaked-through napkin with it, too.

“He moved seats, so he’s now with Alix. I told her to tell him that I wanted to talk once, and he did not budge. He has me blocked on all the sites we have accounts on. Not even Markov can get him to consider talking! It’s just! It’s just!” Kim gestures wildly at the river before them, like it’s everything troubling him at the moment and everything wrong with the world. “I’m stumped! I don’t want to push it.”

“Okay.”

Ondine slips her head over his shoulder, just like Max did whenever he just needed to be quiet and smiling to himself. Kim can’t stop himself from holding her, but he’s not even on the pavement by the Seine with her in heart. Instead, he’s screaming at the back of his oldest friend’s head like he’s used to doing now that Max is sitting with Alix instead of him. What is he screaming? Really, not words. Just regret.

Kim closes his eyes, feeling the rays of the sun on his face. Words begin to form out of his incoherent despair.

_It’s just a misunderstanding. You can be mad but not if you don’t know what happened. Please just listen to me._

“Hey, Ondine?”

“Yes?”

“How do you plan an ambush?”

* * *

 _Last favor I do for your love life_ ever _._

Kim skips in place when he receives the text message back from Alix. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” he whispers. He’s just in time, too, since he had taken off his uniform after fencing in such a hurry that now everyone was staring at him as he giggled over his phone.

“Are you doing something exciting today, Kim?” asks Adrien.

“Sort of! Kind of! Not really. But thanks!” is all Kim can manage before his sneakers hit the floors and he’s zooming out of the locker rooms into the school. The day had been so warm and cozy for autumn, and right now, Kim’s holding back a smile. He’s doing his best to hold on to what little hope he has as he races up the main stairs to the art class.

“Thank you, Alix…”

It had been Ondine’s idea to have Alix set up Max after school for a visit to her art class. Normally Kim would think that would be too sneaky, but Alix had mentioned once that Max considered joining the art nerds a few weeks back. And now - his chance was here - 

_What am I even going to say?_

This was the first point ever since planning the entire debacle that Kim had even thought of that.

The art class is packing up, surely, because there are already people making their way down the stairs as Kim races up. This gives him the cue to look through the window on the art class door. Sure enough, he can see the bright green of Max’s favorite shirt through the door coming closer and closer until the door swings open and it’s no longer blurred through bubbled glass.

For a second, the two boys stand face to face with mirrored expressions of discomfort. Like two magnets with the same polarity, barely holding steady before shooting in opposite directions. Max is the first to react. His face falls and he looks away from and back to the art class kids in confusion - to Alix. She only waves a dismissive hand; she’s completely focused on her spray paint art.

Max almost pushes past Kim when he turns back, but Kim places a hand on his shoulder. Max stiffens.

“Listen - Max - ” Kim quickly swallows back what saliva had gathered in the back of his throat. “I know you don’t want to talk, but I feel like it would be dumb if we stayed like this without having all the facts cleared up.”

Max’s eyes are narrowed behind his glasses up until the last three words. There’s a speck of understanding in them, and it’s enough for him to settle out of Kim’s grasp without walking away. The little gesture draws a sigh out of Kim.

They have the one moment of peace before a flash of black and white descends from the opening in the school roof. Kim reflexively covers Max with an arm, but Max pushes it away almost immediately. Kim’s heart falls.

He doesn’t have enough time to feel bad, because the flash has settled into the figure of a young man on a massive black-and-white paper plane. The akumatized villain - because that’s surely what this is - steps off onto the second floor hall and races to the door of the art class. Both Kim and Max barely have time to run back to the stairs before the villain stomps out the art class and boards his plane to soar over the school.

“Whoever tells me where Nathaniel has gone gets a free commission!” bellows the villain, taking his hood off to reveal a similar black-and-white Joker style suit. Kim can’t even tell who this is.

“He left!” yells Max from behind Kim. “You don’t have to hurt anyone in the school!” He’s surprised that Max didn’t bolt from him as soon as he had a good reason.

The villain takes a moment to ponder the information, before summoning a pitch-black paper plane over his left hand seemingly out of thin air. “Here’s a thank-you present, Max,” he says with a smile. “Between you and me.” But the plane isn’t aimed at Max. It dawns on Kim that the plane is already flying straight towards his chest, too late to react.

“Look out!”

With strength Kim had never seen coming, Max shoves Kim out of the path of the plane just in time for the tip to strike Max over the shoulder. Upon contact, the missile seems to merge with its target.

Kim can barely croak out in bewilderment at the sacrifice.

“Your loss,” hisses the villain to Max, before flying back over the school in search of his quarry. Whatever _that_ means.

As for Max, he’s rubbing his eyes in terror and dropping on his knees. Panic swarms them both, as Kim kneels beside him in concern.

“Max, it’ll be - ”

_CRACK!_

The fist flies straight into Kim’s nose. Kim doesn’t even register the punch as being _anyone’s_ , least of all Max’s, until he’s had half a minute to wheeze and cough through the blood spurting through his nostrils and look up at his attacker. Max, of all people, is giving him a smug grin.

“What the actual, Owl-loving, _f -_ ”

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while now!” Max is cackling over him, while the rest of the school is scrambling into any class available in fear of the akumatized villain on the loose. It’s just them in the afternoon sun, at the foot of the stairs, duking it out like idiots.

For once in his life, Kim resists the urge to punch back.

“I know I had that coming!” He has both his hands trying to cover for the snot and the blood trailing down his chin and shirt. “I still need you to know something!”

The look on Max’s face is eerily familiar in all its amused and dismissive apathy. He draws his phone from his pocket and begins to type on it with one hand while the other settles on his hip. Like a sick, distorted version of Chloé.

“Let’s play a game, then.” He laughs as he taps the screen of his phone once more. “I’m recording all of this.”

Kim recoils before Max in disgust. “You wouldn’t - ”

“You get three shots to convince me not to send this to everyone in our class. I hope they understand your excuses better than I do, because...” Max rolls his eyes. “I’m done with you. Please get that already.”

* * *

There’s something sick rising in Kim’s stomach at the twisted scenario laid out before him. Kim’s not even looking at Max, this isn’t a fair conversation, and gets to be outed to their _entire class_ for being human, for being - !

Kim wipes the dribbling blood under his nose with his wrist and stands up. He’s looking down at Max but he couldn’t feel smaller at the moment.

“I love games.”

“I know that.”

Even as Max says this, he winces. This spurs Kim forward.

“I couldn’t wait for our movie date and it sucked that Syren had to ruin it for us. She pulled me down and almost _drowned_ me, okay, if I didn’t give her a kiss and turn into her prince. You think I wanted that?”

Max purses his lips. “No, but I’m sure you weren’t complaining.”

Kim’s face would have flushed if he weren’t already. “It wasn’t my _fault_. And when Syren got turned back, I saw a friend who was really upset and got turned into a sea witch because of that. I would have to be a jerk to just let her all alone after what happened to her. I shouldn’t have to justify that!”

Instead of relaxing, Max’s eyes harden even more. “Not the first time you’ve put cheering up girls over _our dates_. Strike one.”

Kim shakes his head. Okay, so logic isn’t working on Asshole Max. Maybe honesty would do the trick.

“You’re right. It was stupid of me to bring her to the movies, even if I wanted to cheer her up. I didn’t mean to hurt you, though. I never meant to hurt you. I like girls too, but that doesn’t mean that I’m turning my back on you, Max. I’m sorry. I - ” and his eyes fill with tears this time around. “I won’t do that again.”

The snot begins to trickle down his face again. Asshole Max’s reaction is pure disdain.

“You’ve said that before. Strike two.”

The sun’s rays are getting weaker, and so is Kim’s resolve to fight for them. What is the point of fighting for something that’s gone again, he considers? He answers his own question out loud, to Max.

“You’re my best friend. I only went through all of this - because I feel like I owed you the truth for everything good we’ve lived together - and - ” He sobs mid-sentence, in sheer surrender. “I love you. I really, really do.”

Kim finishes his confession pouring out his heart through his nose, but it’s not enough for this Max. This monster, who was the only Max he could get at the time. Max is shaking his head and holding back a chortle as he turns the phone screen on again. He wouldn’t even look at Kim in the eye.

Just like Kim just five minutes ago, Max can’t see the blow coming until it’s too late. Kim shoots forward and slaps the phone out of Max’s hand unto the ground. Both are now on the floor, wrestling for the phone with the blue case like it’s a bar of gold. Max may have had the element of surprise at first, but he’s no match for Kim this time around. He’s unable to wriggle his way out of Kim’s grasp with one arm while the other reaches for the phone. Upset as he is, Kim still holds the phone far over Max’s grasp up in the air. And then he speaks.

“You know what? I’m sorry I hurt you! I really am! But right now? This? You’re being a _jealous asshole!_ ” He’s yelling now. “I know this isn’t you, Max, but I don’t deserve to have every time I’m nice to a girl interrogated to see if I’m secretly about to leave you!” Tears are flowing down now as the pent-up is working its way out of his chest. “The dance thing was dumb, I know, and I should have tried to not bring Ondine to the movie theater but can’t you see? I wasn’t kissing them or telling them I loved them or doing anything else that meant I was turning my back on you! You froze me out because _you_ wanted to think that I was cheating on you!”

Max has stopped struggling under Kim to grab his phone. Instead, he’s panting rapidly, trying to draw something from his well of nasty Chloé style comebacks to shoot him down. He clearly can’t.

“And you know what!” Kim chokes out again, this time muted through his hoarse throat. “I like Ondine, and she won’t give me this hard a time if I do something a little flirty with someone else! Because we’re _kids_. But I still wouldn’t date her if we were together, not unless - ”

Max opens his mouth then, ready to seize his chance to be a jerk again. Kim cuts him off.

“Actually! Yeah! I wish I could date you both at the same time, you know! But I guess you wouldn’t take that, because you’d be so _damn jealous_ all the time!”

Max’s new Mean Girl face cracks. The glimpse into the devastated boy behind it is enough to send Kim running out of the school without looking back. There’s an akumatized villain on the loose, after all, and Kim just wants a safe spot to wait out this storm or think twice about the things he’s just said.

* * *

While Kim is sitting on a bench by the banks of the Seine, he’s startled by a text message. It’s not from his phone, and it hits him that he’s been clutching Max’s phone the entire time he’s been out of school. The recording was never sent, and it was actually stopped midway once Kim tossed it out of Asshole Max’s hands. But the phone didn’t have time to lock itself the way Kim was holding it with his palm, so he can see the message contents flash on the screen without a problem.

It’s from Juleka.

_It’s me. I kind of need my phone back._

Kim sighs and buries his face in his hands. His face is all swollen because Kim’s broken himself nasty over his best friend, and now he gets to do it all again. But no amount of hesitation is enough for the truth that yeah, Max kind of needs his phone back. Just as well, the sky is getting darker every minute and he needs to head home. Is it stars in the sky he’s seeing, or are his eyes still coming up wet?

 _I’ll be at the Trocadero in 10_ , Kim types back.

It’s more like 15 minutes when he finally finds Max by a Stop sign hanging his head in shame. He’s not even with Markov; it’s just the two of them among the endless pedestrians going about their afternoon. When he looks up to Kim, it’s clear that he wishes he had never said anything today to him.

_Makes two of us._

“I - ” Max clears his throat. His eyes are red and his voice funny, just right to match Kim’s own. “Can I have my phone back?”

Kim has a moment of indignation, but brushes past it to take the phone out of his pocket and pass it to Max’s open hand on command. “Here.” And he turns around expecting the rest of a lousy night. He’s stopped when Max takes his hand.

“Wait.”

Kim gives a loud, exhausted sigh. “I don’t want to do this again.”

“I don’t either, but I feel like it would be silly to keep doing this if you don’t have all the facts.”

Kim slowly turns to face Max in hesitation. Max is fidgeting with his phone.

“You’re _right_. I didn’t think to talk to you about those times because I was afraid - ” He pauses, and takes a gulp of air. “I was afraid that you’d realized you were just attracted to girls and were only with me because you felt bad, and that was a dumb thing to keep to myself. Especially when.” Max rubs his arm anxiously before he speaks again. “Especially when I don’t really get how attraction is supposed to work. I just know that people tend to put it over everything else, and you’re just so…!” He gestures to Kim’s entire body. “I mean! You know!”

Kim nods. “Yeah. I do get it.”

“And don’t get me wrong, I still never want to be with a girl in any way. No. Not ever. But I’ve been sitting on these questions and acting all mad when you poke at them by accident, even if it was when you did lousy things.”

“You’re right, they _were_ lousy,” sighs Kim, like a kindergarten song he’d gotten bored of repeating. He stops there, when he realizes how he’s coming off. “No. I mean it. They _were_ ,” now more firmly. “And I’m sorry.”

Max shakes his head. “Apology accepted for being thoughtless. But I was just _cruel_.”

“I mean, that wasn’t you a few hours ago, I thought we could agree on that,” observed Kim, but Max’s still shaking his head.

“I mean, it wasn’t me, but at the same time it knew all about me, and how I was feeling, so.” Max takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

The sun is almost completely down by now, but the city is filled with more light than ever to Kim. In spite of all his cheer, Kim had never really envisioned anything after their heart-to-heart, least of all this. He’s in disbelief before his luck. So he tests the waters by holding out his arms. Max falls into them instantly.

Everything is right again, with Max’s warmth right over his heart.

_Well, except for the awkwardness._

“We should go home,” says Kim, eyes closed to stop the tears in vain.

“Want to play some shooters online later at 9?”

“Yeah.” Kim laughs. “Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [waves arms] i genuinely don't know what you want me to say. i didn't make kim act so straight, it was zagtoon. but it's a great way to kind of remind ourselves that these kinds of romantic liaisons matter and mean a lot if it's our first time but they're also not that big a deal because they're literally 14? they're working it out. they'll work it out.
> 
> also, normative monogamy sucks and i for one think we shouldn't brainwash the Children into thinking that you're a horrible person if you want to date more than one person at the time. tune in next time for the polyamorous agenda!


	5. scarlet character study

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Heroes' Day picnic doesn't go the way Max expected it to go.

“Thank you, Max, I’m sure your neighbors appreciated your hard work on repapelling the apartment halls.”

Max sits down, but he is barely smiling at Miss Bustier when she congratulates him. His answer is a vague shoulder raise. Sabrina is next to follow, which is already souring the afternoon for Max in anticipation for Chloé’s eventual turn. The Heroes’ Day deeds recount was for the encouragement of the class, of course, to dare each other to be better, but for _some_ \- pointed some, as Alix sometimes called it - it was more of an opportunity to show off about how great they were and how much everyone should love them because for some reason, a superhero decided that the most selfish girl in the city of Paris deserved great power.

On his right, Kim is looking out the window absently. Kim’s deficit disorder just made him zone out like that; he wasn’t freezing Max out. He’d learned that over time, and if anything, seeing him like this made him feel even more confident after the fiasco of their latest messy get-back-together. Sometimes Max felt compelled to look out and try and guess at what he was imagining about based on his line of sight, and he’s aching to do it again. Unfortunately, Miss Bustier would call attention to them if he didn’t demonstrate he was paying attention.

“Alright, class. I’m so glad we’re all so hyped to be each others’ heroes today, tomorrow, and every day we can!” said Miss Bustier with her most excited grin. “I can’t wait to see you tomorrow at the picnic, and for that lovely macaron tasting of Marinette’s! I am so proud of all of you, my heroes!”

“We’re proud of you, Miss Bustier!” said Kim, his attention back to cheer on their teacher.

Miss Bustier put a hand over her heart. “Oh, thank you, Kim. See you tomorrow, everyone!” At her word, everyone begins to pick up their things to go home after school. Alix Kubdel, however, picks this as her cue to walk over to Max and Kim’s desk and sit right in the middle of them, on the tables. She can’t get in trouble if the word has been said.

“And I thought that would never end! No offense to Miss Bustier,” she hastily covers for herself. “But, you know.”

“We know,” chuckles Max, who is placing his notebooks back in his bag. “It seems to me that if you were a real hero you wouldn’t be showing off about it all the time. If anything, it would be dangerous.”

“Can you imagine if Chloé has been faking this whole time and we all fell for it and it’s a conspiracy between her rich parents and the media so that Hawkmoth doesn’t deal up with her because she is so good at akumatizing people even by accident?”

Max and Alix share a look before breaking out into peals of laughter.

“That’s honestly so much better than reality, Kim. Why can’t Alya do a take on that. It would be absolutely amazing.”

Kim brings Max and Alix close together. “But it would be _dangerous_ to do the real hero thing!” he whispers. Alix begins to laugh again, and pulls away to wipe the tears gathering up in her eyes. Max, instead, nestles his head on Kim’s shoulder, hogging as much as he can of his boyfriend before he messes it up again.

“A real lovebug, aren’t you, Max.”

Alix’s observation makes Max a little defensive. “We had a rough patch!” he cries. Kim interrupts.

“It’s just the effect I have on people,” Kim observes. “Ondine likes to cuddle too.”

“Oh yeah, you guys are all doing the - ” and Alix draws a little triangle in the air, but without a final side to complete the triangle. “How’s that going along?”

“It’s cool, really!” Max can’t hold back a little nervousness in his voice, but he shakes it off. “I mean, Kim’s the one who’s enjoying it more, because two is better than one and all that.”

“It’s not like math, Max,” protests Kim. “It’s like - eating ice cream with two flavors, and it’s not like eating two cones separately, but a cone with two scoops and the flavor being so good and!” Kim takes a deep breath. “Speaking of, anyone up for ice cream after the picnic?”

Alix shakes her head. “Gotta help out with this volunteer thing at the Louvre with my brother. Glad to hear about that, though!”

“But you’re coming to the picnic, though, right Alix?” says Kim. “Man, it’s great to group up everyone for the picnic. The class as a whole is just more fun than splitting up in the usual groups.”

“You should bring Ondine.”

Alix and Kim turn their heads to Max when he speaks. Alix is arching an eyebrow, but most worryingly, Kim winces.

“Are you sure? I mean, you don’t need to meet her if you don’t want to - ”

“I’m sure you’d have more fun if we were all together,” pointed out Max. “And she sounds really cool, like both Alix and I would get along with her.”

“Are you...positive?” probes Alix. Her eyes are punctuating the question with the seriousness it deserves. _Do you want to risk more drama? Do you?_

“I am!”

Kim breaks out into a smile. “I am so glad you’re going to meet her, I am sure you’re going to get along great! Honestly, the world is going to collapse,” he says absent-mindedly while he goes about picking out his things for his school bag. “Like - you? And her? Actually talking in the same space! Psh!!!”

Alix blinks at Max in disbelief. “Oh yeah! Can’t imagine!” she exclaims while Kim is not looking.

“Yeah, but you know. Unusual day. Unusual city!” Max grins with all the grace of a cornered rabbit. He wouldn’t get the chance until hours later, in his own room, to press his head against the wall and grit his teeth in frustration at his own ill-advised recklessness. 

Even as he turns on his computer, he has Alix’s disbelief burned into his eyes, still staring back at him from the screen.

* * *

“Can’t sleep?”

Max swivels his chair away from the screen of his laptop to look up at his mother. It’s already late at night or she wouldn’t be here. He can’t help but wince when she switches the light of his room on, but he’s not relieved when he gets a closer look at her. Tuesdays are always grueling for her, but today she looks especially worn down.

“Maman!” Max springs to his feet and gives her a hug. “Do you want anything to eat?”

“No, I have the day free tomorrow,” she reassures him back, rubbing him over the shoulder. “Dear heart, if you have class tomorrow it is best for you to have a good four hours of REM sleep for tomorrow, if nothing else.”

“We don’t have class per se, but we do have a class picnic - ” and when reminded, Max gave a long sigh. His mother tugs herself out of his grasp to caress her son’s face.

“Maximilien. What do you need to talk about?”

Max shuts his eyes and tries to shake himself out of his funk to speak. “It’s just about Kim again, but. It’s dumb, maman. You should go to sleep too.”

His mother shook her own head. “Maybe we can talk it out and both go to sleep. Come on.” She gently directs him over to his bed - unusually messy for Max’s standards. They both sit, and Max’s head slumps on his mother’s shoulders. He could have stayed there all night, forgetting to speak as she held him close. But he didn’t want to keep her there forever when she had her own sleep to catch up on.

“Maman - I’ve made a mistake.” He catches her up to speed in a relatively short time, considering everything involved, but his head is in his hands by the time he explains about Max’s invitation to Kim.

“Max.”

“I’ve overestimated my own okay-ness with Ondine. I’m not jealous, I swear, I am completely happy that Kim is with her and with me at the same time and he’s not being greedy or anything! It’s just - I’ve messed up! He’s messed up! This is going to go badly, because the past predicts the future and we’re still _us_ , the dum-dums - ” He gulps for air. “And now I should get ready for another terrible breakup, a permanent one this time. I’ve decided to start already by playing a lot of Warcraft.” Max gestures to the laptop for the paused game to demonstrate.

His mother remains looking at him even when pointed to the computer.

“Maximilien.”

“Yes, maman.” He hangs his head, already dreading the stern talking-to.

“No, not like that.” She holds his shoulders gently, and Max looks up to her with watering eyes. “Maximilien. You cannot predict anybody’s behavior perfectly, and least of all yours.”

“Mine? Surely you don’t mean Kim?”

“No.” His mother cracks into a smile. “I mean you - because you are responsible for your own behavior - and so is everyone, but you are the one attempting to give up before you have even had a chance to act jealous or whatever you’re afraid of doing. What _are_ you afraid of?”

“I’m afraid - I might misunderstand something - and then react badly, just like I tend to do - when it’s just my insecurities speaking. In the moment, it all feels completely logical but I _was_ wrong, and I’ve learned now.”

“You _have_ learned now,” says his mother. “Maybe you will make a mistake this time - ” Max whimpers, “but now you know what’s in play now. What your insecurities make you think.”

“But what if I haven’t learned as well as I think I have? And then I’ll have ruined everything with Kim because I didn’t take into account how deep down I’m always the worst person I can be.” Before, the words pouring out of Max’s mouth had been racing through anxiety. Now, they’re pooling into a big lake of misery. “Don’t we know that already? We live in Paris.”

“No,” says his mother, shaking her head with a smile. “Don’t say that. We’re all flawer, and that’s undeniable, but Maximilien. I refuse to believe that if we all had Ladybug and Chat Noir’s power, we would be as brave as them and take on all of Hawkmoth’s challenges straight on.”

Max’s mind drifts to Chloé for a moment. He waves off that comparison.

“I want - I want Kim to be _happy_ , and also Ondine, and myself too.”

“That’s a noble thing to want.”

“I’m just afraid we _can’t,_ because - because we _can’t_. I’ll mess it up. Or maybe Kim. Or who knows, maybe Ondine. Or something will happen. Things aren’t meant to _be_ like that, even if we’re all happiest when we’re doing it.”

His mother’s face has now grown grave. “The world has a lot of assumptions about everything. That we’re always supposed to be perfect. That some people aren’t meant to be happy.” She places a finger on his heart. “ _You_ are meant to be happy. No matter what anyone says. No matter what Hawkmoth thinks he can curse for his own gain. And so does Kim, and Ondine. My darling.”

“Maman,” chokes out Max, before diving forward to give her another hug. They don’t let go for a while.

* * *

That night, Max has terrible dreams.

He’s Gamer again. That gaping, stinging wound that can never leave because _it’s not fair, it’s not fair_. Not only is it not fair, but he’s thinking about someone who’s made everything unfair. The viewscreen of his giant mecha lets him look at the cityline of Paris and zero in on the location of the one who’s made this all unfair.

“ _Ondine,_ ” he hisses.

Gamer is taking out civilians as he sees them on the streets, because he needs to be the strongest he can be when he finds her and crushes her under the claws of the mecha. Part of him is buckling under a tickle of remorse. When he finds her, she will be so grossly outmatched, this entire spectacle will only be a hunt and not a competition.

 _Good_ , something whispers in his ear. _That’s what it’s been like for me all along._

The sky is tinted a curious red color, but Max’s eyes are only on the green notched square on the screen pointing to the location he is looking for. The pool. Of course she’d be there. He can almost see the glass roof as he takes out more and more fleeing Parisians desperately dashing out of his path. A twisted smile creeps on his face when the arms of his mecha stretch out to the glass ceiling with every intent of smashing it to bits.

When the reflection of his robot’s arms hit the glass ceiling, Gamer notices a red speck floating in the air above him.

The notch indicating Ondine’s location fizzles and vanishes like the robot is answering to his every instinct. Instead, Gamer’s viewscreen tilts up to find the speck that’s broken his concentration. The sight of the culprit pierces into the vacuum where Gamer once had a heart. He screams.

“Kim!”

That’s not the culprit’s name, but the joy the twisted cupid takes in shooting everything in his path is so familiar to Gamer; even if it’s turned up to a sadistic eleven.

Heartbreaker makes no note of his scream. Only after a few shots he glances over at Gamer’s mecha with amused disdain, smirking at him only for a second to make his dismissal known.

There’s a target over his shape now.

The mecha now races through buildings instead of between them; shamelessly tearing through concrete and steel as tears of rage spill from Gamer’s eyes. He hasn’t been hit by a hate arrow, but not all of Heartbreaker’s magic could fuel the hatred that Gamer felt for Heartbreaker in that moment. And yet, the newborn fuel for his chase wasn’t enough to give Gamer an edge for this new quarry. Heartbreaker is fluttering in the sky, but when he darts off, he’s too fast. The mecha is too heavy, too bogged down to keep up with the winged devil who could be drifting through the skies without the faintest notion that he had a tail behind him.

_You are so cruel. You are so, so cruel, and I’m tired of you._

Finally, Gamer loses sight of Heartbreaker somewhere among the lines of the Eiffel Tower. The mecha stands in the parks before it, surrounded by the debris of his rampage. It falls to its knees when it can't lock on to any target. Gamer shatters the controls before him in a fit of rage. If only his fists could reach Heartbreaker now -

Gamer is so absorbed into his tantrum that it’s only until he notices water up to his knees that he breaks out of it. He falls to his knees to touch the warm pool gathering up now to his thighs. A dreadful sense of recognition washes over him just as quickly as the water is rising. Are these his tears? Or are they someone else’s? Someone, as in - ?

Through the viewscreen, Gamer now sees Heartbreaker again. Any chance of a chase is now lost, with his mecha being underwater. He’s caught in a wave every single negative feeling he’s had for his closest buddy since he was seven years old. His body is wracked in frustrated sobs.

 _Come back,_ he screams in his mind.

When the water is at his shoulders, Heartbreaker flies down to meet the now rising sea line. He’s nowhere near Gamer’s mecha. Instead, he is stooping down with his arms out to hold the face of someone floating up to the surface. The mecha, unhelpfully, zooms in on their faces. Gamer covers his eyes to avoid looking at their kiss.

The water has now filled the entire chamber he’s in, but Gamer can barely breathe between sobs to even drown. His hands fall away from his face and drift uselessly by his side. He’s frozen and helpless to watch Heartbreaker and Syren embrace in the air, under the scarlet light of the sun.

 _Literally_ frozen.

The ice races through the mecha and the water holding Gamer under with indescribable speed, and shatters just in time to free Max from his illusion.

* * *

He’s free.

Max comes to his senses in the empty husk of his mecha. It’s not filled with water, but the walls are brittle and cold like the most deep-chilled ice cream you’ve ever found at a store. Mindlessly, Max searches for a way out of the mecha before coming to the panicking realization that there is no exit. Either Ladybug and Chat Noir free him - or he waits until this robot tower of ice cream melts around him to come out.

Max holds his arms in a tight hug when the freeze begins to creep into his body.

This morning, he woke up and went to school holding on to a prayer that nothing would go wrong. Only to be greeted by his fellow terrified classmates by the news that Ladybug had been turned by Hawkmoth and killed Chat Noir herself. Their collective anguish hadn’t lasted very long before they’d all been consumed by the oncoming plague of akuma butterflies ready to feast on their fear. And Max, _I’m sorry Kim_ , hadn’t lasted a minute.

By instinct, his eyes drift to the viewscreen. The mecha can show him what is before and around him even this lactosed state. The city _is_ frozen, just not made of ice cream like his mecha is right now; and it’s glinting under the brilliant, blue sky. There is also an army of akumas surrounding him, and the city, and Max could easily believe he was trapped in some surreal dream if it weren’t for the all-too common sight of a Ladybug and Chat Noir battle. Even if it was in person against Hawkmoth himself.

In spite of the freeze, Max stretches his arms on the controls to look more closely at the fight. A frosty breath escapes his lips when the heroes turn around to come face-to-face with another Hawkmoth. But not because of the double; because, at the same time, a depressingly familiar figure has drifted down from the skies with two notched arrows pointing at Ladybug and Chat Noir.

But for all of his fear, Ladybug and Chat Noir dart away from his arrows and from the incoming flight of two butterflies on the back of the second Hawkmoth. The first image of Hawkmoth, now revealed to be a mirage, vanishes under the onslaught of Heartbreaker’s arrows. The jolt of the heroes’ success makes Max’s heart gallop with hope.

Right until the moment Chat Noir launches his baton straight to Heartbreaker’s chest.

With the dark magic that had possessed Kim all this time banished, all that was left was a ditzy teenager to fall from the skies with a terrified scream.

“No! _Ladybug!_ ” Max stretches an arm towards the image, as if he could catch his boyfriend with the same ease of a giant.

And then, a string takes hold of the falling Kim. Max’s face lights up when Kim is dropped safely onto the frozen ground thanks to Ladybug’s yo-yo. For a moment he berates himself for his lack of faith, but it doesn’t last very long. He’s absorbed by the fight between the Parisian heroes and their villain for the city’s release. He is further emboldened when Ladybug and Chat Noir are joined by Rena Rouge, Carapace, and even Queen Bee. For all of Chloé’s faults, Max is overcome with admiration for the old class bully because none of the heroes, at the moment, are thinking about the danger. They’re not even thinking that Hawkmoth could possess them, right now.

Because they’re driven by what needs to be done for everyone to be free.

Out of nowhere, a giant, monstrous violet butterfly stretches its wings behind Hawkmoth. The heroes are blown away by the beat of its wings and don’t have time to regroup before Hawkmoth, the filthy coward, disappears. Max holds back the impulse to pound on the controls of the dead mecha, because the heroes aren’t tracking the monster down. This means - this _must_ mean - that they’re safe.

Max gives a long, raucous laugh of relief.

Ladybug’s healing magic washes all around him not soon after, and he finds himself standing on the now thawed ground of the parks before the Eiffel Tower. Opposite to him, under the immense structure, is Kim scratching his head in confusion as he pieces together what’s just happened.

Max, for once, is the one dashing with all his strength forward across the empty parks with his eyes on his boyfriend and jumps straight into his arms. 

“Kim!”

“Max!”

The two boys are laughing and crying in each other’s arms, unable to put words to the nightmare of a battle they had just lived under Hawkmoth’s control. None of it was in their minds, either. They’re just overcome with joy at seeing each other’s faces as they were, and not twisted under mind-control magic. Max, at least, is grabbing on to the image of his boyfriend’s dyed quiff hair and undercut with a Z in it and his gray eyes full of light. He is also grabbing on to his literal body, all of the Well Oiled Sports Machine Kim liked to brag about to everyone and anyone, but no longer in fear that it might be taken from him.

They could choose now, to be their best selves.

* * *

The afternoon Heroes Day picnic is the best holiday Max has ever had in the longest time.

Markov and him have a fun time compiling a mix with Nino for the day, Alix gets him to try her skates, and he gets to try Sabrina’s new cookie recipe (Chloé didn’t want it, so it was free real estate). The sheer collection of foods on the table shouldn’t be possible for a class this small and this young. And yet, Max’s mouth melts every time he takes a bite out of Marinette’s dad’s classic macarons. They’re especially appetizing in the warmth of a well-worn afternoon.

“I’m going to gather all the muscle weight I need to get huge for fencing!” declares Kim as he stuffs three chocolate cookies in his mouth at the same time. Max and Alix, as always, share a look of amused disbelief before laughing with Kim.

“I thought you just had to be fast to win all the awards in fencing,” complains Alix. 

“Size does give you an advantage,” says Max, ready to defend Kim in a heartbeat. The three join the gathering by the picnic sheet bickering about the advantages of size, weight and speed in fencing and don’t stop until they’re interrupted by a new voice.

“Uh, Kim?”

Max and Alix turn their heads to take a look at the girl coming up behind Kim. Max had her features memorized in spite of himself: sea-green eyes, freckles all over her face, a sturdy swimmer build and short carrot red hair messily strung over her head. In spite of that, Max actually feels surprised.

“Oh, hey there,” says Alix, casually tipping her cap to the new girl. Max nods in his own hello.

“Hi. I - mhm - ” Ondine’s lips twitch nervously when she has the eyes of the entire classroom. “Kim?”

“Ondine!” Kim springs to her feet to hug her and give her a peck on the lips. “I’m so glad you came!”

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything!” answered Ondine, gathering courage until Kim’s bear-hug. When the two separate, she finds herself also surrounded by Max, who’s stood up to join them. “Hh - hello!”

“Hello! You should already know, I’m Max,” and Max stifles a cough of embarrassment. “It’s nice to meet you, Ondine.”

“You too, Max!” There’s apprehension between them, but Max notices his own desire to make this work in her eyes. His shoulders relax.

“You should sit here, with us!” And he gestures to the spot where he had been sitting, beside Kim, so he could sit beside both of them. Ondine is caught by the surprise for a moment before her face flushes in gratitude.

“I hope you don’t mind,” she stammers, but Kim, Max and Alix do their best to usher her up into their group when she sits down.

“Kim, who’s this?” interrupts Alya. A twinkle has crossed her eye, where most of the classmates are confused by the development. Kim is more than ready to give her an answer.

“This is Ondine! She takes swimming classes with me after school, and she’s my girlfriend!”

The class is caught in whispers of curiosity as the information reaches them. Marc, in spite of himself, speaks up with a defensive tone.

“I thought you and Max were together, kinda?”

“Oh, not kinda. We’re totally together.” Behind Ondine, Kim reaches a hand to squeeze Max’s. Max squeezes back with a smile of gratitude of his own. “But I’m with her too.”

“Are you dating her too, Max?” says Sabrina, arching her eyebrows when she realizes what’s going on. Max shakes his head.

“It doesn’t need to go all ways like that, Sabrina.”

“And that’s none of your businesses!” interrupts Alix on Kim’s other side, waving a macaron in Sabrina’s direction. “They’re not doing anything wrong!”

“I was just curious,” Sabrina mutters back. Chloé, decked out on a lounge chair, rolls her eyes.

Like anyone cared about what she thought.

“Oh, sweet!” Nino nods. “I heard that Mireille Caquet was also dating two guys at the same time recently, and then this upper class kid said something really stupid about it but Alya reminded me that it wasn’t worth getting worked up on, because they weren’t gonna change their minds because someone kicked their asses.”

“Sadly,” agreed Alya. Most of the class nods in answer, and Max’s heart swells in sheer pride at his friends.

Just then, the speakers Nino had brought in the back for the picnic begin to play this cheerful indie dance number. When she listens to the song, Mylène shakes Ivan in excitement.

“Oh, I love this song! Can we dance? Ivan?”

Ivan is more than happy to bring her to her feet and bring her closer to the speakers. The two aren’t the most coordinated, but the delight with which they’re coming together is infectious. Alya elbows Nino to stand up not soon after, and Marc and Nath scramble to join too after them. When Rose gestures to Juleka that they should go, she also grins at Kim, Max and Ondine. In open invitation.

Ondine, for the first time since the event, leads the boys up to join the dance circle coming together by the park benches. It was more of a circle than a couples event anyway, and there was no doubt that there was space for the three of them in this initial couples event.

“ _Oh, Honeybody_

_Whatcha doing Sunday?_

_Maybe sipping a Coca-Cola with me, babe_

_Oh yeah, Honeybody_

_Honeybody, Honeybody, yeah.._ ”

Ondine shakes her head and hands in rhythm with the music. Meanwhile, on her side, Kim taps his feet on the ground with so much energy it’s hilarious. Max would have stayed in his corner shoulder-shrugging to the beat if Kim didn’t grab his hand and spin him out of nowhere.

“Hey!” Max laughs until he’s placed right in front of Ondine. For a moment he’s whacked out of sync, until he grasps her own movements and integrates him in his little shoulder-shrugging for himself.

“ _Cause everybody wants a Honeybody someday_

_Mama said they don't grow on them trees easy_

_My hands down on the ground_

_I'm begging you to please_

_Honeybody..._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's it. that's all the story. zag doesn't get to tell me otherwise.
> 
> in all seriousness, i've been planning this dang thing for literal years, and i sure hope you like it because it was not easy to make the time to patch up canon's mistakes. but i take criticism. just not about polyamory. that's just what it is. it's not the end of the world if you have more than one partner.
> 
> the song mentioned at the end is "honeybody" by kishi bashi, and like so many of his works, it's a bop.
> 
> meet me at fate-motif.tumblr.com


End file.
